Observation/Reflection #2: Eyes in the Back of Your Head: Observing Student Actions
From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be taking notes, doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher. What strategies are used by your CT to encourage students to attend and engage? Watch carefully how your CT moves around the room.
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Observations:
Today's Biology classes were a hodgepodge of activities. Student's received their second test and last test of first quarter back. My CT had students examine the their tests and held a question-answer session regarding topics that seemed to be misunderstood on the exam. Most students started to share and compare their grades with friends as soon as the paper hit their desk. When it came time to discuss the test questions students were legitimately concerned and asked many questions about different test items. After the test questions were squared away my CT introduced a major project for the second quarter. Students are designing and implementing their own experiments based on real world issues, measuring some sort of growth over time (plant, animal, bacterial, fungal etc). My CT explained that it is time for the students to start thinking like scientists, and scientists usually work together and collaborate, hence they would be working in groups, with one catch, the groups were to be randomly assigned. Names were drawn from a hat to assign the groups, during this process, there were several side conversations ensuing throughout the classroom, as well as, some students acting excited to be placed in a group with friends, others being bummed out about being in groups different than their friends. Once in their groups, students met and discussed the real world issues they had brainstormed the night before, and narrowed down the ideas to 3 favorites, and began to think about designing an experiment to conduct. Most groups dove into the project immediately, and were fully engaged.
Reflections:
My CT has a very laid back style of instruction, without too much formality. I think that this style works in his classroom due to a high level of respect that exists between himself, and his students. It is very easy for him to deal with side conversations that pop up during class, and once addressed, in a very friendly and nonchalant manner, the situation diffuses itself. Another reason that management issues do not often occur is because students always seem to be engaged. There are always activities and interesting projects for students to work on. The experimental design project will be very challenging, and require extra effort on the part of the students, but is very inquiry and independently driven. My CT acknowledged ahead of time that there would be a lot of groaning and complaining from students that they could not pick their own groups, but he was very adamant, and correct when he pointed out that we can't always choose who we work with. I completely agree that learning to work effectively as a team, even with people who you do not know, is an excellent skill for the students to develop and maintain for their future careers.
Class Topic: Experimental Design Project
Grade: 10
Observed by: Sarah Jakob
Observation/Reflection #2: Eyes in the Back of Your Head: Observing Student Actions
From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be taking notes, doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher. What strategies are used by your CT to encourage students to attend and engage? Watch carefully how your CT moves around the room.How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Observations:
Today's Biology classes were a hodgepodge of activities. Student's received their second test and last test of first quarter back. My CT had students examine the their tests and held a question-answer session regarding topics that seemed to be misunderstood on the exam. Most students started to share and compare their grades with friends as soon as the paper hit their desk. When it came time to discuss the test questions students were legitimately concerned and asked many questions about different test items. After the test questions were squared away my CT introduced a major project for the second quarter. Students are designing and implementing their own experiments based on real world issues, measuring some sort of growth over time (plant, animal, bacterial, fungal etc). My CT explained that it is time for the students to start thinking like scientists, and scientists usually work together and collaborate, hence they would be working in groups, with one catch, the groups were to be randomly assigned. Names were drawn from a hat to assign the groups, during this process, there were several side conversations ensuing throughout the classroom, as well as, some students acting excited to be placed in a group with friends, others being bummed out about being in groups different than their friends. Once in their groups, students met and discussed the real world issues they had brainstormed the night before, and narrowed down the ideas to 3 favorites, and began to think about designing an experiment to conduct. Most groups dove into the project immediately, and were fully engaged.Reflections:
My CT has a very laid back style of instruction, without too much formality. I think that this style works in his classroom due to a high level of respect that exists between himself, and his students. It is very easy for him to deal with side conversations that pop up during class, and once addressed, in a very friendly and nonchalant manner, the situation diffuses itself. Another reason that management issues do not often occur is because students always seem to be engaged. There are always activities and interesting projects for students to work on. The experimental design project will be very challenging, and require extra effort on the part of the students, but is very inquiry and independently driven. My CT acknowledged ahead of time that there would be a lot of groaning and complaining from students that they could not pick their own groups, but he was very adamant, and correct when he pointed out that we can't always choose who we work with. I completely agree that learning to work effectively as a team, even with people who you do not know, is an excellent skill for the students to develop and maintain for their future careers.Class Topic: Experimental Design Project
Grade: 10
Observed by: Sarah Jakob